Evaluating a management training program for hospital doctors in Norway

Abstract

In September 1990, 40 Norwegian doctors began a 2-year management training program consisting of six 1-week courses organized by the Norwegian Medical Association. The program was subsequently evaluated. This article discusses the adequacy of applying quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation methods. Qualitative methods included observation of the six courses and interviews with 12 of the participants before and after the training program. The quantitative method was by questionnaires answered before and after the program by participants who were colleagues from the same department and colleagues from other hospitals (control group). We found that combining these two methods was an effective evaluation of management training. The controlled study gave us the opportunity to use advanced statistical analyses of changes in attitudes toward management by the participants during the training period. The interviews and observations provided us with a better understanding of the educational processes, and thereby ability to initiate changes in the program. We conclude that as educational processes are part of a larger context it is important to understand the relationship between the effects of a program and the processes that produce these effects.